Which Agile?

istanbulcoders.org
13 August 2015

Abdulkadir Yaman
@ThoughtWorks
Systems Thinker
Gopher
abdulkadiryaman@gmail.com
@abdulkadiryaman
github.com/yaman

Agile in the wild

daily standup
2-4 weeks iteration
prioritization
retrospectives
futurespectives
collecting feedback
measuring
progress
...

Systems 101

What is a system?
A system is a set of interacting or
interdependent components forming an
integrated whole.
-

wikipedia

A system is more than the sum of its parts.

-

Donella H. Meadows

System Elements - 1
(Stocks, flows - Structural)

Agile Equivalent - 1
Stocks
Inflow

----->
----->

Outflow

----->

Backlog ?
Business
requirements ?
Iterations ?

System Elements - 2
(Feedback Loops - Behavioral)

Stabilizing loops - Balancing Feedback

Runaway loops - Reinforcing Feedback

-

Profits fell because investment fell, and

investment fell because profits fell (Jan
Timbergen - Economist)

System Elements - 2
(Feedback Loops - Behavioral)

Population increases by time if:

Fertility Ratio > Mortality Ratio

Population decreases by time if:

Mortality Ratio > Fertility Ratio

Agile Equivalent - 2
Developer
Create bugs

Iteration
Done

Backlog

B
Burn stories

Codebase

R
increasing
complexity

Agile Equivalent - 3
increasing
complexity
R
Retrospective

Solve Problems
Quality

B
Identify
Problems

Goal

Agile Equivalent - 4
decreasing
complexity

sh
cy ort
cle er
te

st

R
TDD
Codebase

Goal

R
increasing
quality

So why do we fail to transform?

Leverage Points - Places to

intervene in a System

12 - Numbers
11 - Buffers
10 - Stock and Flow Structures
09 - Delays
08 - Balancing Feedback Loops
07 - Reinforcing Feedback Loops
06 - Information Flows
05 - Rules, Incentives, Punishments,
Constraints
04 - Self-Organization
03 - Goals
02 - Paradigms
01 - Transcending Paradigms

Lets reverse the process

The Goal

Prioritize

Constraints?

Theory of constraints
identifying the most important limiting factor (i.e.
constraint) that stands in the way of achieving a goal
and then systematically improving that constraint until it
is no longer the limiting factor
In manufacturing, the constraint is often referred to as a
bottleneck.

Next - Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement
(Shifting Paradigms)
Reminds me something familiar;

Stock
Flows
Feedback Loops
Delays
Buffers
Goals

hmmm, systems thinking?

Last - Learning Organizations

(Transcending Paradigms)

A learning organization is the

term given to a company that
facilitates the learning of its
members and continuously
transforms itself.

References
Thinking in Systems: A primer by Donella H.
Meadows
The Goal by Jeff Cox and Eliyahu M.
Goldratt
The Phoenix Project by Kevin Behr, George
Spafford, Gene Kim

Thank You for listening!